Birmingham family hopeful after specialist assessment arranged for son injured in Thailand

The family of a Birmingham man critically injured in Thailand say a specialist company is due to assess whether he can be safely flown back to the UK.

Twenty-year-old Ethan Lacey remains in intensive care after suffering serious injuries while in Thailand.

His mum, Kerry, who is currently by his bedside, said bringing him home was now the family's priority.

"Ethan's condition at the moment is still very critical, with his heart rate fluctuating, having highs and downs," she said.

"It's basically a case of we need to get Ethan home."

Kerry said a specialist medical company was due to assess Ethan to determine whether he was fit to travel.

"We've got a company coming out tomorrow to assess him to see if he's fit to fly," she said.

The family have launched a fundraising appeal to help cover the cost of bringing Ethan back to Birmingham.

"It's going to cost about £33,000 to £34,000 to get Ethan home to Birmingham on a flight as he will need a paramedic, a doctor and a nurse on the flight," Kerry explained.

The 20-year-old had travelled to Thailand to visit his nephew, who lives in Bangkok.

Kerry said it was unusual not to hear from her son regularly.

"Every day since Ethan had been here, we'd constantly get calls or texts saying, 'Hello mum' or 'Hello dad'," she said.

His father last spoke to him on a Friday morning.

"He'd said that his phone was broke but he was going to get it fixed," Kerry said.

Later that evening Ethan called again to say his phone had been repaired and that everything was okay.

When the family failed to hear from him over the following days, they began to grow concerned.

"On the Sunday we was like, it's a bit weird that we haven't heard off Ethan now," Kerry said.

The family tried to contact him, while friends in Thailand also became worried after not seeing him.

A missing persons report was filed in both Thailand and the UK.

Kerry said the breakthrough came in the early hours of the morning.

"It was about 5am in the morning, I had a phone call and it was somebody just screaming on the phone and I couldn't understand what they were saying," she recalled.

"They messaged and said Ethan was in ICU, in a hospital, in intensive care."

Not wanting to believe the news, the family asked for proof.

"I said to Ethan's dad, just wait a minute because it might not be Ethan," she said.

"Then they sent us a picture and it actually was Ethan."

Kerry, Ethan's father and his grandmother boarded a flight to Thailand within hours.

"We had a matter of an hour to pack before we had to be at the airport," she said.

Describing the moment she learned her son was in hospital, Kerry said: "Finding out that Ethan was in hospital as a mum was the most devastating news ever."

"It was just like a whirlwind."

Although she is frightened of flying, she said there was never any question about making the journey.

"I'm really petrified of flying, but I had to get to my child," she said.

Doctors later delivered devastating news to the family, warning them there was little hope of recovery.

"We was told that Ethan was going, that there was no hope for Ethan, that he would never ever breathe on his own," Kerry said.

As a result, the family made the difficult decision to withdraw life support.

"We got told by the doctors that it would be a matter of minutes, maybe two hours at the most, that Ethan would be alive after doing that because he couldn't breathe on his own."

However, Ethan has continued to defy expectations.

"It's been 10 days now and Ethan's still fighting strong," Kerry said.

"So now his parents, we're fighting with him every step of the way."

She added: "I'm so proud of him. He's got strength unlike anybody else on earth."

Kerry also paid tribute to the support the family has received from people back home.

"Everybody back where we come from has been amazing," she said.

"We are so grateful to all our friends, our family, even people we don't know."

"It wouldn't have been possible to have got to where we are without them all."

The family continue to raise money through the GoFundMe appeal to support Ethan's treatment and eventual journey home to Birmingham.